Sydley Gardner was fired for not following protocol after a September 2010 incident on the Green Line. But due to a technicality, he was reinstated by an arbitrator only to be involved in another accident two days ago.

The Boston Globe reported that according to a Transit Police report and an official familiar with the incident, Gardner was fired because he failed to report he had struck a woman when he was operating a Green Line trolley, and explained:

Long-standing MBTA protocol requires a driver involved in an accident, regardless of the level of injury sustained by the other party, to get out of their vehicle and undergo drug and alcohol testing while the incident is investigated by the agency.

According to The Boston Herald, Davey is “not happy” about the driver’s return to the job, reporting:

MassDot Secretary Richard A. Davey had personally fired a Green Line trolley driver for failing to report he struck a passenger in 2010 — four years before the same driver sat at the controls of a train that derailed this week.

“I’m certainly not happy about it,” Davey said. “I was the one that terminated him the first time. At the time, I thought we had the right grounds to do it."

Gardner has been put on leave while the MBTA investigates this week’s crash.

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